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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Persuasion - Priestly Debates

So after the marriage chapter we moved on to the chapter on the priesthood and for some unknown reason I decided to have classroom debates. I divide the teens into 6 groups and we had 3 topics and I assigned them to the pro or con regardless of what they believed. In my attempt to keep order and make it a real learning experience I gave them several steps to prepare, including creating evidence cards and a persuasion map. However when the debates took place only about two of the groups really understood the concept of rebuttal, of using their finding to back up what they were saying and actually making an argument. I think in order to do this again I would have to spend a whole week teaching them some logic and the difference between opinion and facts. I don't know if my curriculum would allow for that but I'm not opposed to trying it again next year or maybe do it with my honor classes instead. At any rate I need to prepare them better or perhaps show them a video of a good debate.

Oh, I see I didn't post the lesson. I went ahead and add it link to it. They could use their textbook, encyclicals...anything of authority on either side. The topics were marriage, celibacy, and ordaining women.